Nick Holland, CEO, Gold Fields
Send this article to a friend
Print this page

» Gold Fields looks to uranium
» Essakane gold resources up 80%
» Gold Fields looks inward for growth
» Barrick sells Gold Fields' shares
» Gold Fields whittling down S. Deep options

» JSE:GREAT BASIN GOLD LIMITED:
890c 0%

Gold Fields to sell uranium assets
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Wed, 01 Aug 2007

[miningmx.com] -- GOLD FIELDS is looking for a buyer for its uranium assets in South Africa, chief financial officer Nick Holland said on Wednesday.

Holland’s firm stance on the matter puts to rest any speculation that Gold Fields could mine its uranium itself caused by comments from CEO Ian Cockerill at the March quarter results that the company was deciding what to do with the Beisa underground orebody.

A number of firms have started due diligence studies on the asset, said John Munro, head of corporate development.
We do not see it as core
“We do not necessarily want to mine it. We do not see it as core for ourselves,” Holland said. Asked if this meant Gold Fields would sell the asset, he said: “Correct.”

“If we can monetise it without disrupting our operations we will do it,” he said.

Gold Fields has about 30 million tons of reserves of uranium at its Beisa reef mine and surface dams.

The spot uranium price is currently $120/lb off its high of nearly $140, according to the Ux Consulting Company’s website.

South African gold companies have feverishly talked up their uranium prospects, with AngloGold Ashanti, currently the largest source of the heavy metal, revitalising its South Vaal processing plant that handles material that is by product of its gold mining operations.

Harmony Gold is talking about extracting uranium from its dumps. Renova Group, a Russian firm, has a memorandum of understanding that could result in joint venturing Harmony's uranium resources. One possibility is that Renova could build a uranium mill near Harmony's Randfontein mine.

A pre-feasibility study into exploiting its uranium assets is expected in the third quarter of this year. The Cooke dump near Randfontein has an estimated 38 million pound resource of uranium.

Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
Uranium One, the second largest publicly listed owner of uranium resources, is producing yellow cake at its Dominion mine in South Africa.

First Uranium, a subsidiary of Simmer & Jack, a junior JSE-listed gold producer, is looking to exploit the dumps at Simmer’s Buffelsfontein mine as well as from underground at Ezulwini, the old Randfontein Four shaft formerly owned by Harmony.

Even DRDGOLD, which has seen its operations shrink back into just South Africa from Australasia, has been talking up its uranium prospects.